Zero (LP)

Hawthorne Heights

Amoeba Review

06/24/2013

What happens when emotional (dare I say EMO?) pop punk grows up? Zero, Hawthorne Heights' 5th album, answers that question pretty well. From this vantage point, the tragic and untimely fatal overdose of the band's guitarist and main screamer, Casey Calvert, marks a halfway point in the band's career. Rather than replace Calvert, the band consolidated their duties in tribute and, as maybe as a result, have become leaner and more mature as contemporary rock radio has warmed up to their propulsive and energetic approach to angst and ennui. Zero is another marker on the path of a very real and very human rock band, whose trials and tribulations have have informed their current sounds.